Watch: Kelly Slater In The Water At Pipeline After Hip Surgery
First he's surfing and shark diving with presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr. for his birthday, and the next thing you know 11-time world champ Kelly Slater is back in the water at Pipeline, putting his surgically repaired hip through its paces.
With a solid, northwest swell running on the North Shore, Slater took the opportunity to paddle out and pull into a few barrels at Pipe and Backdoor. Sharing the lineup with soon-to-be fellow competitors such as world number three Griffin Colapinto and women's Pipe Pro wildcard Moana Jones Wong, Slater looked solid in his training session.
Last fall, Slater underwent major hip surgery, which took him out of the water for over three months. His rehab process has reportedly been slow, but he's been spotting surfing around the North Shore more and more lately, including with friend Jack Johson at Haleiwa. Looking to be ready to go when the waiting period for the WSL's Pipe Pro kicks off on January 29, in an exchange on an Instagram post featuring the recent Slater footage one commenter wrote, "Uncles hip looking nice and greased up!!!"
To which Slater replied, "Not greasy enough yet but at least I can go straight."
The greatest competitive surfer of all time and most dominant Pipeline surfer ever, Slater has been given a wildcard from the WSL to compete on the entire Championship Tour in 2024. It's likely this will be his last full-time season, but that's been said before. Next month, Slater will turn 52 years old.
30 Years Later, Kelly Slater Is Still The Most Dominant Pipeline Surfer Ever
With more than 25 years of writing about surfing, the ocean and action sports, Jake Howard continues to share stories, profiles and issues that shape the surfing world. One of the premier subject-matter experts in the field today, he's savvy in the ways of print, digital and social media, his breadth of work is expansive. Getting his start writing Surfline surf reports and recording the phone reports for 976-SURF in the late '90s, Jake served as the managing editor for Surfer Magazine in the early 2000s before moving on to launch RedBullSurfing.com and cover surfing for ESPN and the X Games. Over the years, Jake has also enjoyed time behind the edit desk at The Surfer's Journal, as well as the World Surf League, where he worked as the Senior Editor for a number of years. Beyond producing editorial content, Jake has served as a digital marketer and copywriter for iconic surf brands such as Quiksilver, Roxy and Rip Curl. Writing thousands of pages of copy for Surfline, he has deep SEO experience as well. The surf columnist for the San Clemente Times, Jake continues to dedicate himself to the culture and history of the sport through his involvement with the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center in San Clemente.